14 Indians feature in Forbes' top dealmakers list

New York: In yet another instance of people of Indian origin hitting it big, the Forbes magazine has listed as many as 14 in its 'Midas 100 List' of those who invest in start-up companies and then sell off their stakes with handsome gains.

This list of tech dealmakers is prepared every year by the business magazine based on the value of the companies these people have taken public or sold in the past five years as well as the capital and involvement it took to get there.

Ram Shriram, who invested early in Internet search giant Google, has been ranked third in the list, moving up from number four last year. He currently runs venture capital firm Sherpalo. He has invested in travel portal Cleartrip and internet-based photo service provider Xoom.in, besides online money management firm Mint.com.

L. John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, whom Forbes has described as the "mentor and money man to founders of Google, Amazon, Intuit and Sun Microsystems", has topped the Midas list.

Others of Indian origin on the list include Navin Chaddha (rank 10), an IIT graduate who heads India investments of Mayfield Fund, and well-known venture capitalist Vinod Khosla (rank 70).

Chaddha, ranked 58th in the previous year's list, has successfully managed deals like IL&FS Investsmart and India Infoline in financial services space and Provogue in fashion.

Parag Saxena of Vedanta Capital is at number 31. He had a big initial public offer (IPO) last year and has also raised a $1.4 billion fund called New Silk Route to take advantage of deregulation in India and elsewhere. His investments range from wireless to biotech.

Arjun Gupta, ranked 51, founded TeleSoft Partners in 1996. His big deals have included Salesforce.com and Sierra Design Automation.

The magazine's ranking considers venture-backed technology and life sciences companies that have gone public or been acquired in the past five years, as well as the amount of capital it took to get there and the level of involvement in a company by its investors and advisers.

Forbes' annual Midas 100 list surveys the top tech dealmakers in the world. Last year, companies that venture capitalists helped launch hauled in $34 billion from 86 public offerings and 304 acquisitions.

The final quarter of 2007 saw 31 initial public offers - more than any other quarter since the third quarter of 2000 - worth $3 billion.
Source: IANS